Of Silver Crystals and Feathers: Side stories
by Zipora Tsuki
Summary: A collection of one shots based on the happenings after Of Silver Crystals and Feathers. Many will be based on the lives of Kuja and Serenity in "Neo Bran Bal" but I'm sure the others will sneak in some appearances as well... SM/FFIX
1. Questions

ZT: Hi everyone! Guess whose back with another Oscaf side story?!

Kuja: And guess whose back as her slave-muse? Zipora honestly when are you going to let me go?

ZT: When I think of a better muse.

Kuja: What ever happened to your original muses?

ZT: No one would get them in here.

Kuja: Great…

ZT: Anyway, I hadn't planned on updating for a few days but-well this popped in my head and won't leave, so I wrote it while it was still fresh in my mind. I don't own Sailor Moon or FF9. Enjoy!

Of Silver Crystals and Feathers: Questions

Genomes were complex creatures with a vast expanse of knowledge. They could sit and recite Lord Avon's works from memory, or explain how the mechanics of a clock worked as if telling someone how to make a sandwich. However, for their knowledge or such complex things, those that were raised on Terra, an artificial world full of dangers that kept them from exploring beyond the boundaries of Bran Bal; the simple things were often missed or never learned.

Chibi was the last genome ever created. A four year old with a four-year-old's mentality, she was always finding something new to discover. She learned that she didn't like bees, but loved the honey they created. And although honey was made with flowers, they did not taste as sweet as the golden delight, despite how nice they smelled. She learned that it was hard to walk in a black mage's shoes since they were too big for her, and that laughter was her favorite sound. Ice was cold, but snow was fun, especially when she wore Serenity's long coat to keep her warm. Serenity's "liquid chocolate drink" was very tasty, especially when she put the fluffy white things it in. And Serenity had the very best stories! Some were about magical kingdoms, others were about far off worlds…They were fun to listen to inside, warmed by the chocolate drink and Serenity's coat, as they watched the snow fall just beyond the window. She learned she liked Serenity a lot. But there was one thing concerning Serenity that Chibi didn't know, and no matter how much she looked, she couldn't seem to find the answer…

One day, the little genome decided it was time to go to the grown ups for the answer. Skipping through the black mage village, she made her way to a little gate and opened it. Walking into a small shack, she was greeted by the loud "Kweh!" of Bobby Corwin as he spotted her from his nest. Hearing the noise, his two owners, Mr. 111 and Mr. 33, turned to see the little new comer.

"Hello Chibi," Mr. 111 greeted cheerfully.

"Come to help us with Bobby Corwin?" Mr. 33 asked.

Chibi shook her head, "Not today, I actually have a question I was hoping you could answer."

"Well, we shall certainly do our best. What is your question?" Mr. 33 asked.

Chibi fidgeted slightly, looking down at the hem of her blue skirt, "Lord Kuja and Lady Serenity are going to have a baby…right?"

"Yes, they expect it to arrive in a few months from what I hear..." Mr. 33 replied.

The little genome fidgeted with her skirt a little more before looking up at the two black mages, "What _is_ a baby? I don't think we had any on Terra…"

"I'm sure you did," Mr. 111 replied, gentle affection in his voice for the little girl, "And you have seen a baby too." He patted the chocobo-chick's head, "Bobby Corwin here is a baby after all."

Chibi blinked, "But, why would they be so excited then? Serenity isn't very fond of Chocobos…"

The black mages faltered, before Mr. 33 tried to explain, "W-what Mr. 111 meant was that a baby is a very young creature, just as it comes into the world for the very first time. You were a baby at one point, as were all the genomes and Serenity."

"So…Kuja and Serenity are going to have a little genome to take care of?" Chibi clarified.

"I suppose so…" Mr. 111 replied slowly, not really sure himself if the child would be a genome, part of the race Serenity was, or something in between.

"Well, where are they getting it from?" The two black mages looked at Chibi in confusion before she continued, "The baby. If it takes so many months to get here, where is it coming from? We have a moogles, so shouldn't the delivery be fast?"

The two mages looked at each other, neither having the slightest clue how to answer the question of the little genome. Finally, Mr. 111 came up with a solution, "You know what? I'm sure Serenity and Kuja would know more about this, being the ones going to have a baby after all…Why not ask them? I hear they're over at the inn at the moment."

Chibi thought about this for a moment before nodding, "I see your point. Thank you for the help!" As she skipped out the door, the two mages glanced at Bobby Corwin, then back at each other, "Where _do_ babies come from?"

"Lady Serenity!" The former sailor scout looked up from her book as one of her favorite genomes entered the inn. Many of the residents of Black Mage Village didn't know what to do with the little one. The genome's found her curiosity to be a handful and very annoying…especially that one time she started eating the chrysanthemums in Mikoto's garden. The black mages found her to be very interesting, but having the innocence of a child themselves (plus the fact that they were younger than the four year old), they didn't know most of the answers to her questions. Serenity, on the other hand, thought she was darling. Her bright eyes and adventurous nature reminded the blond of the other children she had come across in her lifetime, especially the little ones on earth, making her more excited for the coming of her own child each time she saw little Chibi.

Chibi bound up to Serenity sitting promptly at her feet. The blond smiled and put her book down, knowing this as the signal that the little genome had a question she wanted the older woman to answer. "What is it Chibi?" she asked.

"Well, I had a question and went to ask Mr. 111 and Mr. 33 about it. They gave me the answer, but then another one came up and they said I should ask you and Lord Kuja about it," the little genome answered in one breath, to the amusement of the former scout.

"Lord Kuja", who happened to be making notes on his research at a table nearby, glanced up a moment after hearing the little girl speak before returning to his notes, keeping an ear on his wife's conversation with the child should his input be needed.

"Ok, what is it you want to know?" Serenity asked.

"If babies take a long time to get here….where do they come from?" Kuja decided a walk would be a nice way to clear his head at that point.

Serenity blinked as the words registered in her head. She knew she'd have to answer this question sooner or later, but she was expecting to have to answer it for her own child…in a few years! "Um…" she glanced around for any cue as to where to begin, and noticed her husband attempting to escape. He was going to leave her to answer this on her own? Nope, not in her books. "Well I'm sure Lord Kuja could give you a good answer. He is the smart one after all," she winked at the little girl, causing her to giggle and her silver mate to stop in his tracks.

Kuja turned to face them, and Serenity could have sworn he powdered his face again with how pale he was. "Oh but my dear…I'm afraid she is a young genome; my scientific answer might be a little _too_ complex for her. Surely one who has experience with youths, such as yourself, would do a better job at explaining such things than _I _would."

"Nonsense," Serenity replied, waving him off, "You would do a grand job at explaining these things. Besides, you know my experiences with children are less than wonderful. Take my 'friendship' with Eiko for example…"

The genome had to admit, he couldn't argue with her on that point…He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it not a moment after. He repeated this a few more times before he realized what the answer was: wing it. "Why children take so long to come because they come…from the stars."

Chibi looked confused, "The stars?"

Serenity caught on to what Kuja was doing and took it in stride, "Of course dear. See, every person has a bit of star light in them. When two people love each other enough, they, well…Kuja?"

"The lovers combine their star light to call to a new star, which is their baby. And coming from the stars takes a long time…so that's why we have to wait months for the baby," Kuja answered. To Mikoto, who had entered the room right about at the start of the explanation, it was very ridiculous unless they were talking about star seeds. But, considering it was a four year old they were talking to and she _never_ brought up reproduction with the other genomes until they were older, she decided to let it slide for now.

"But how does the baby know where to go?" Chibi asked.

The silver genome tried to think of an answer, but Serenity beat him to it. "Why, the mommy calls to it, sweety. The combined light grows in the mommy's tummy, and works as a guide until the light gets there."

Chibi looked up at Serenity with huge round eyes, "Is that why your tummy has been growing?"

The blond laughed, "Sure."

"Ok, that's what I wanted to know." Chibi jumped up, "Tell the baby to come here soon! I can't wait to meet it!" With that, she ran past Kuja and out the door.

As soon as she left, both husband and wife heaved deep sighs of relief. "And to think…" Kuja sighed, rubbing his temples, "We'll have to give that explanation again once our own child asks."

Serenity shook her head, "Hope you wrote it down, love."

He looked up at her in shock, "Why do _I_ have to tell her?"

"Because…" Serenity walked towards the room with the bunk beds, "The pink little 'Kupo' chirping creature with the orange pompom at the Iifa tree says that you owe me a huge favor. That's what I'm cashing it in as."

* * *

Love it? Hate it? Review it! Till next time!


	2. Gourmand Qu Stew

ZT: Hello again! I actually planned on updating yesterday, but this story took more than one day to right. Here's the next short. I don't own Sailor Moon or FF9. Enjoy!

Of Silver Crystals and Feathers: Gourmand Qu Stew

It was a well known fact that Kuja loved to sleep. He could retreat to bed before the sun set and not leave until late in the afternoon if permitted to do so. Of course, he would never do that; he was far too busy with his research, watching over the construction of Neo Bran Bal, and keeping an ever watchful eye on his wife. Of course, by some blessing of the gods, his always energetic wife loved to sleep in as well, so the genome could get away with staying in bed until noon on occasions.

Today was not one of those days. Kuja's brows furrowed slightly as a loud ruckus pried him out of his deep slumber. Not ready to wake up, he placed a rather large pillow on top of his head to drown out the noise, while at the same time relishing the softness of the down pillows his in desert palace when compared to the ones of the inn at the Black Mage Village. Not that the village inn wasn't comfortable, mind you, but when one such as Kuja has lived the majority of his life in the splendor only a king could claim to know, simpler resting accommodations just don't meet expectations. Because of that, and because he was tired of watching Serenity's eyes turn into blue flames every time she heard "Kupo", the genome had suggested that the two of them return to the desert palace for a week as a vacation from their hard work. However, as the couple quickly learned, even though the majority of monsters had left the palace once it became known that it was the home of two very powerful entities, a few stragglers liked to find their way inside from time to time.

Kuja figured that this was what was making that terrible din his trusty pillow was failing to mute. "Serenity…" he mumbled under the pillow, reaching one hand out blindly for the blond. "Serenity, it's your turn to shoo the Mu out…Serenity?" Pushing through the fog of sleep enough to realize he was grabbing air where his wife should have been, he forced his tired eyes open and moved the pillow. Sure enough, her side of the bed was void of a person at the moment, and now that the genome was waking up, he was certain he could hear her voice amongst the slamming and rattling noises in the other room. Groaning, the genome reluctantly left the comfort of his bed, tossed on a robe, and went in search of the noisy woman.

He found Serenity in the very first room he decided to search: the kitchen. Had Kuja been slightly more awake, he was sure he'd have some sort of sarcastic remark for the chaos ensuing in the kitchen. Serenity was walking from cupboard to cupboard, opening them, looking inside, giving a huff or growling some words which Kuja concluded long ago were curse words in her native language, before slamming them and repeating the process. "Serenity…what are you doing?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

The blond looked back at him in surprise, "Oh sorry! Did I wake you?"

_I'm surprised you didn't wake the dead with this ruckus…_Kuja thought. However, he decided that if his wife was already at the point that she'd curse inanimate objects, it would be best not to test her patience. "No, not at all," he lied. "But what are you doing?" he repeated his earlier question.

The blond huffed, crossing her arms and flopping on a chair. "Nothing looks good," she pouted.

"I'm…sorry?" Kuja tried, not exactly sure what the blond was talking about let alone how he was supposed to respond.

"I'm having cravings," Serenity said bluntly, correctly getting the impression that her sleep deprived husband was having trouble catching her meaning. "I've been flipping through the cabinets trying to find something to satisfy it, but I've found nothing."

Realizing that it was another of his wife's pregnancy issues, Kuja gave himself a telepathic smack in the face to wake up; there was no way he was gonna keep up with a hormone induced fit if he was mostly asleep. "What _are _you craving? There's bound to be something that you can think of that sounds good…"

"There is and that's the problem!" she replied with a groan, "Back when I was hanging with Tantalus, Zidane brought us this stew thing called…I think he called it 'Gourmand Qu stew'. I'm craving _that_!"

"Why not make it then? We have a great deal of food here; I'm sure we have the ingredients around here somewhere," Kuja offered, having never heard of the stew himself.

Serenity sighed, "I don't know what it's made of though. Zidane had apparently stumbled across one of his adventure crew members when he was out and about. That person made the stew, and Zidane had been too afraid to ask what was in it. Apparently he/she/it, was very fond of frogs?"

"Ah yes, Quina," Kuja recalled the creature with ease. He shuddered; of all the people he had as enemies, not a single one scared him like s/he did. After all, it wasn't everyday that hero attempted to _eat_ the villain. And Quina tried it twice (A/N: Yes, I tried to make Quina eat Kuja during both encounters in the game, but apparently that kind of death is too anti-climactic for someone of Kuja's caliber)! The genome looked thoughtful, "Well, Quina is a Qu...Apparently all of them are good cooks, so that would make sense."

The blond looked up curiously. "A 'Qu'? Like Qu's Marsh?"

Kuja nodded, "The Qus reside in the marsh, hence its name." Unfortunately, it was only after those words left his mouth that he noticed the wheels were turning in his wife's head. That was never a good sign; it meant that she was planning something that he would either have to attempt to stop or unwillingly go along with. "…Why?" he asked carefully.

"There's a Qu's Marsh west of here! If I can find a Qu there, he or she might be able to give me the recipe!" his wife replied, her eyes dancing with excitement.

"Serenity…Qu's Marsh is halfway across the continent. _And_ the sun's not even out yet!" Kuja pointed out.

He watched her face fall. "I know…" she sighed, "But…I _need_ that stew!" She looked like she was debating with herself for a moment before giving a resigned huff. "I'll just have crackers…" she grumbled, pulling some out of one of the cupboards and beginning to munch.

Kuja figured that now might be a good time to escape back to bed and just deal with Serenity in the morning. But, on the other hand…Serenity loved her food on a _regular_ basis to the point that Kuja would think she would actually give a Qu a run for its money! And now she was having a craving for stew and finding herself having to settle for crackers…she was bound not to like that, and from the tension in her body, it looked like she was starting to get angry…When Kuja won the argument over getting a moogle, Serenity's agitation left him camping out on his sister's couch for three weeks. He could only imagine what grief this was going to bring him…Actually, with what his imagination came up with, maybe a midnight flight wouldn't be that bad… He let out a sigh, "Don't eat all of those; you'll need them for your stew."

She blinked, turning to the genome, "So you'll let me go?"

"No," he answered bluntly, "I'll go."

"Wha~? But like you said it's still night!" she protested.

"So? You were about to go," he pointed out.

"Well yeah, but I'm used to late night runs. At night you, well, you like the sleep!"

Kuja raised an eyebrow, "I think the fact that you're pregnant in the first place is proof enough I can stay up past my bedtime if I wish to."

The blond turned bright red at the comment, "Fine, I'll let you have your way."

"Isn't that what you said that night~"

"Get _out_!"

* * *

The genome stifled another yawn as the ground whizzed by underneath his silver dragon. He was glad the massive creature was wide awake when he went looking for it, however he was sure the dragon would have called him a few choice if it could talk when he ordered it to fly to Qu's Marsh of all places. Not that he could blame his pet though…Kuja probably hated the land even more than the dragon did! _Ah…the things one does for love…_ Kuja mentally grumbled, spotting the large grass as they approached. He just hoped he could get in and out and go back to sleep…

Of course, there were a few minor details the genome had overlooked thanks to his lack of sleep. He growled in frustration as he dismounted the silver dragon a few meters from the beginning of the high grasses and began trek through the marsh. The dragon could not land even remotely near where the genome figured the Qu's would be, meaning that he had a long walk ahead of him. The other thing his foggy brain failed to register was that this was in fact a marsh. So he was going to be walking through mud, deep, thick, sticky, disgusting mud! And he had grabbed the closest pants when he got dressed, which happened to be white. Not to mention he had also put on his favorite boots! The genome let out a stream of curses as his boot tried to stay in place in a particularly deep batch of mud, and yanked it up. Of course, this had an unexpected effect as he suddenly found that he used too much force to free the boot and fell back into vile mess. "By the gods! All I want is a recipe!!" he shouted at the heavens, getting to his feet and momentarily considering just turning back.

However, those thoughts were silenced when his ears picked up an unusual sound. Getting to his feet, he followed the noise deeper and deeper into the marsh, vaguely wondering how he was going to find his way back once he stepped into a large patch of reeds taller than he was. He grimaced as he quickly realized the mud was turning into a slosh-substance that now splashed up with every step, drying on the higher places of his attire to a yellow crust. What on Gaia was in this stuff to make the mud yellow?! On second thought, considering he was treading through it, maybe it was best he didn't know.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Kuja reached the source of the noise. At first, he felt a wave of relief hit him. The good news was the noise he had heard was a Qu hunting some frogs. He watched the creature waddle after a frog and jump, missing the frog by an inch as it jumped from a lily pad into the pond water that had been saved from turning into slosh by a rise in the land. Pulling himself up onto the solid ground, he walked over to the Qu, "Excuse me…"

The fat creature got up and turned around before jumping back, "EEEYAAAA!!! Kuja!!!" The genome felt all the color drain from his face. Of course the Qu he would run into would be Quina! However, before he could respond, the Qu clamed down, sniffing the air in front of it (or maybe s/he was tasting the air with that tongue which wouldn't fit in its mouth…Kuja couldn't tell.). Finally s/he spoke, "No, you no Kuja…Kuja a girly man. You no wear skirt and funny smell powder. You look like him though."

Kuja resisted the urge to scowl. This thing had the nerve to criticize his attire?! At least people _knew_ his gender. Well, the dwarves didn't… but they're exceptions! "I am a citizen of Neo Bran Bal," he began slowly, wondering if his voice would give away who he was. Well, it was still croaking slightly from being groggy, so as long as he didn't use theater metaphors…or get mistaken for a frog, he figured he'd be fine.

"Me thought as much. You have tail like Zidane and other dummy dummies. You one of them?" the Qu asked bluntly.

"…Yes, I am a genome," he replied after a pause, having to figure out if he was calling him a "dummy dummy" or a genome, "My reason for being here actually has to do a bit with Zidane."

"Ooh! He bring me yummies?!" s/he inquired with excitement.

Kuja blinked, "What? Oh, no. Apparently you made him a stew some time back, which he shared with his crew. Well, one of his team members is now my wife and expecting…and, well she is craving that stew."

The Qu nodded thoughtfully, "Gourmand Qu Stew…many mommies want the taste when baby on the way." S/he sniffed the air again before replying, "I make you stew, but I need frog first!"

Kuja blanched, "Frogs are one of the ingredients?!"

"No!" s/he snapped, "Frog for breakfast!" S/he looked thoughtful again, "But mommy and baby waiting for stew…" Quina turned to the genome, "You catch me frog; I make stew." It was more a statement than a request and Kuja knew it. But before he could protest, the Qu started walking towards a shack, "Me want big yellow one!"

Seeing there was nothing else he could do, Kuja turned towards the pond, spotting the frog in question sitting at the edge. Oh this was going to be too easy…

* * *

A loud splash signaled that Kuja missed the frog for the twentieth time, catching a face full of water instead. "Careful! You crush tadpoles!" Quina shouted from in the shack.

"I know!" he shouted back. _If I didn't care for the tadpoles, I would have turned this blasted pond to steam by now!_ the genome thought, circling the pond like a cat as he kept a wary eye on the yellow one. It was sitting on a lily pad in the center of the pond at the moment, well out of his reach. Sighing, he glanced up at the pink sky. Dawn had come. Soon that Qu would want his breakfast, and if he didn't have the frog, he had a feeling the Qu would eat him instead. Or worse, the stew. _Maybe bringing Serenity wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all…_Kuja thought, her swiftness and wings coming to mind. Of course she hadn't been doing much flying since her pregnancy, but she could still move! They would have caught this frog long ago, and without Kuja looking and smelling like some sort of marsh monster! "Come out already!" he demanded, throwing a piece of reed in the water near the frog in an attempt to get it closer to one of the shores. It made a small ripple near the frog's pad, but nothing more. As if to mock the genome, the yellow creature let out a bellowing _**crooooooooaak**_ right after.

That did it. "You want a larger splash?!" the genome snarled, yanking of one of his ruined boots, "Fine! Here ya go!" He threw the boot and it landed with a loud splash just beyond the frog. Startled, it jumped into the water in Kuja's direction. Seeing how well his first attempt worked and still in his rage, he quickly threw the other boot in the same manner, successfully getting the frog close enough to the edge to grab. "**You**, my slippery friend, I am going to enjoy giving to the Qu!" he growled, looking the squirming frog in the eyes before storming up to the shack.

"Here's your blasted frog," Kuja declared, stomping through the entrance.

"You have good time! Me just finish with stew and put in travel pot- Egah! You get eaten by marsh?!" Quina squawked, seeing the appearance of the genome. Sure he had mud covering his lower half before, but now his entire body was drenched head to toe, his hair was a plastered down around him with streak of mud highlighting it, the yellow sludge was staining every place it has covered (which after the first few slip and slide attempts at the frog had pretty much covered his whole body), and his boots were no where to be seen.

He walked up to the Qu and handed it the frog, taking the stew from the Qu, "I'd rather not talk about it…thank you," he added as an after thought.

"You tell mommy I say hi ok!" the Quina replied wholeheartedly, waving with the frog in hand before turning to its breakfast while the genome returned to his dragon.

* * *

Serenity tapped her fingers on the table absentmindedly. Kuja had been gone for _hours_! Sure she still had the craving, but she was beginning to worry about her husband's safety a little more at the moment. She knew the man could sleep the day away if he pleased… did his tired state get the better of him in a monster encounter? Or could he have dozed off on the dragon and fallen off?! Maybe he couldn't find a Qu and actually went in search of another marsh…on a complete other continent! Or maybe…oh those marshes were always filled with stagnant water and bugs! Did he get sick?! Oh no! _Great! My husband is out there with some awful marsh disease, probably dying as some mist monster keeps its distance because it doesn't wanna catch whatever he has…all because __**I**__ needed some blasted stew!_ she mentally griped.

Of course all of this was just her being overdramatic, and any other time she would have waved the thoughts off as her mind being overactive. However at the moment, with her having not slept that night either, going half insane from an unsatisfied craving, and hormones acting up again, she was prone to believe it. _That does it, I'm going after him!_ Serenity stood up, determined to find the silver haired genome.

However, before she could walk more than five steps, the words "I'm home," echoed down the hall. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she rushed down the hall to where her husband's voice came from. She stopped short when she caught sight of him. A look of horror crossed her face, "What happened to you?! And…where're your boots?"

Instead of answering, Kuja held out a pot for his wife to take, "Your stew." With that, he turned towards where he knew he could get a warm bath. He was stopped, though as some arms wrapped around his chest from behind. "You're such a good husband," Serenity's voice whispered softly in his ear before she kissed his cheek, not caring that some of the mess on his outfit transferred onto hers, "Thank you." With that, she let him go, picked up the pot, and headed towards the kitchen. Kuja watched her go and shook his head, a great deal of his agitation fading, _The things one does for love…_

* * *

Love it? Hate it? Review it! Till next time!


End file.
